Jesus said in John 14:18, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

Hi! I am Matthew Peavy and these are my two daughters, Julia (8) and Sarah (6). This is the story of my life in a nutshell. I was born to a mother who could not care for me, so she gave me up for adoption. After almost a year in foster care, God smiled on me, and I was adopted by two amazing people, Bob and Joyce Peavy, who had a big heart for adoption. I was the third in a row of four in my new family.

Bob and Joyce first adopted my older brother Scott. After that, they were able to have my older sister, Lesli, on their own. Lesli was the only child they could have because of Mom's medical problems. After that, they adopted me, then my younger sister, Krista. Thanks to Bob and Joyce, I was officially given a name: Matthew Ross Peavy. Life was going along well for this new smorgasbord family for a few years. When I was about five years old, Joyce died in the hospital of diabetes. Six months later, Bob died when hit by a drunk driver.

Once again, God smiled on our helpless state of need, and Bob's incredible brother, Ron, took over the family. Ron was a single man (and 11 years younger than his brother) who was just getting started in his teaching career. Against the odds, he knew the importance of taking on the responsibility of his brother's children and of keeping all the children together as a family. Ron eventually found the woman he wanted to marry and who was willing to take on the challenge. Ron and Elena live in Big Bear, where I grew up. They raised me from when I was about seven years old. I moved to San Diego to go to college in 1986.

God had the real plan in mind all along and put me at Mesa College for a summer class so that Dario Gavilan could reach out to me. I was so happy to find someone who was interested in God!  God adopted me into his Kingdom in 1989, and there is no doubt this is the only place to be. I met Natalie at singles' functions, we fell in love and got married on February 27, 1993. Our two awesome girls came along promptly after that.

God decided he wanted to have Natalie with him, so Natalie went to Heaven December 20 of 2000, after courageously fighting cancer for three years. Without a doubt, God has been with me through the challenging times and the good times. Looking forward, I am convinced that God has amazing plans in store for our family. I just want to be used by him to help others. As a living example of Jesus' words in John 14, I am very thankful for how everyone involved with my family has carried us through and given us the needed strengthening. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. To God be the glory.

- Matthew, Julia, and Sarah Peavy